


Destiny

by notenoughcoffee



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-08-22
Packaged: 2020-06-03 02:57:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19454905
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notenoughcoffee/pseuds/notenoughcoffee
Summary: Prompt: "Everything here is a bit of a secret. So, y'know, keep your mouth shut or we'll probably kill you."Katherine has something to hide. Anne becomes an accessory to her crime.





	1. Destiny or a Mistake

“Shut up!” Anne hissed a little too loudly for someone trying to keep quiet.

“It’s not me! I can’t do anything about it!” Katherine responded in a suitably quieter tone. 

Although they were still several streets away from their own, if there was any hope of pulling this off, they were going to need to rethink their approach to the front door. As it currently stood, their transgression would be discovered before they were able to step through the entryway. 

An impropriety such as this had every chance of creating a rift in the house. Illicit, unpredicted, and divisive, Katherine’s stomach ached with the stress of her crime. Each step bringing them closer to their gate was racked with guilt, a tortuous self-affliction of distress. Heartbreak and misery were the expected outcomes of far too many scenarios Katherine could think of. She felt downright wretched.

Betrayed by the squeal of the hinge on the front garden gate, the girls had to play the part of two innocent returning shoppers, above reproach and not at all in anyway the miscreants they truly were. Katherine’s legs fought each step, as though her delinquency had turned her bones into stone. Trembling, she took slow, steadying breaths to keep herself from being sick all over the front steps.

Anne transferred all of the bags she was carrying to one hand, shuffling them around noisily to unlock the door with her free hand. The racket made Katherine’s heart pound violently, relentlessly, against her ribs. The tempo of her heart increased with every crinkle of the reusable carriers. 

As if sensing her discomfort, her own package-in-arms squirmed and let out another mewling cry. 

Anne shot her an outright homicidal glare, communicating all of the savagery and ferociousness that she was unable to convey in words at that given time through one brutal look. Katherine felt what little color was left in her cheeks drain away and her breathing became arduous once more. 

Reaching over her, Anne pulled the blanket to cover the little head peeking through the folds of the fabric, tutting at Katherine in the process.

“She won’t be able to breathe!” Katherine whispered, alarmed and verging on hysteria, she freed the tiny face from its confines. Bleary eyes blinked up at her worriedly. Her little nose twitched. Despite her panic, Katherine leant down and dropped a tiny kiss between two furry ears. The act soothed them both.

Already, Katherine had fallen head over heels for this kitten. She couldn't even begin to imagine what she was going to do if she had to give her up.

***

Katherine was astonished that she was able to sneak her new friend into the house without another soul knowing. She was amazed that no one had investigated the strange sounds coming from her bedroom. She was stunned by her new kitten’s seamless integration into her everyday routine. She was astounded, most of all, by Anne’s uncharacteristic restraint and discretion when it came to their new four-legged companion. 

Katherine had been sure that she would announce the arrival of a new housemate almost as soon as she stepped through the door with her. 

Things had been going far better than she had ever dreamed. 

Sometimes it still felt as though she were dreaming. As she lay in bed, the tiny, humming radiator weighed against her chest. The soft vibrations of her purrs made her subdued the creeping anxiety she always felt when she first woke up. She woke every morning to the comforting weight pressing against her, warm and reassuring, easing her into the day, rather than being jolted into consciousness from some horrid dream or another. She found herself laughing more than she ever had at all of the kitten’s silly antics, reminding her of Anne on her best days. A soreness had settled in her cheeks from smiling all the time. Even the practicalities of caring for an animal helped structure her day, adding meaning where she didn’t know it was missing. 

All that she had yet to do was to tell the other four members of the house and come up with a name.

Feeling tiny, needle-like claws press against her chin before she had even opened her eyes for the day, she couldn’t stop the giggle from escaping her.

“Are you hungry, sweetheart?” She asked, eyes still closed to keep the kittens whiskers from poking her. She laid a gentle hand on the kitten’s back and was about to sit up when her bedroom door flew open.

“I knew you were hiding someone in here!” Parr called out as she barged through the door. 

The unexpected noise startled the kitten. Her little legs flailing, trying to find purchase against Katherine’s bare skin so she could skitter to safety beneath in folds of the blankets.

Parr looked expectantly around the room, assuming she would see another person. Instead, all she saw was Katherine, now bleeding profusely from her chest and face from dozens of shallow cuts. 

“What-”

“Everything here is a secret. So, y’know, keep your mouth shut, or we’ll probably kill you,” Anne interrupted her before she could get any further with her question. She slipped into the room behind Parr and closed the door quietly behind her, grabbed a tissue from a box, and sat next to Katherine on the bed to try and staunch some of the bleeding. 

“What is here? And what happened to your face?” Parr looked around baffled, before spotting a flicking tail amidst the duvet and sheets. “Is… Is that a cat?” 

“It was Kat. Now it’s Freddy Krueger,” Anne sneered, mocking Parr and Katherine alike. She shifted slightly in an attempt to shield the kitten from view, but she knew she was too late. Hearing her playmate, the kitten dashed from her hiding spot and began to bat at Anne’s hands as she pressed tissues onto Katherine’s wounds.

“Oh my God. You got a cat,” Parr whispered incredulously.

“Yeah, yeah. A kitty for Kitty. Cat for Kat. However you want to put it. If you’d seen both their little faces at the shelter you would have brought her home too,” Anne mumbled as she picked up the cat, wincing as she immediately wrapped her front paws around her wrist and kicked Anne’s forearm with her hind legs. 

“What am I supposed to do with this information?”

“Nothing, is what.”

“Please, Catherine. It was meant to be. Out of all the kittens at the shelter, she was the only one to give me a cuddle and fall asleep in my lap. Look at her, she even has a little behind her ear that almost looks like a ‘K’” Katherine pleaded quietly, sitting up and pulling off the tissues Anne had stuck to her to slow the bleeding. She stood to go clean the scratches properly, unsure of whether it was safe to leave the room now that one more person was in on the secret. She bit her lip, grimacing as it pulled open one of the cuts. Changing tactics, she jutted her lip out and gave Parr the most pathetic, wide-eyed, beseeching look she could manage. 

Parr threw her hands in the air and turned for the door. “Call it destiny, call it a mistake, either way, when Jane finds out you’re screwed.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our new friend has a name! Not everyone agrees on it.

“Nebula.”

“Neverla?”

“Nebula.”

“Netherlands?”

“Nebula.”

“Networker?”

“Nebula.”

Anne sighed, frustrated, and dropped down onto the bed, undignified and heavy. The frame creaked dangerously at the sudden weight of her. She lifted the kitten up above her head and let her hone her hunting skills by batting just out of reach of nose with her ineffectual paws. “Why would you curse this sweet little face with such an awful name?” She questioned before making soft kissing noises. 

“What is so awful about it? All of the flecks of color along her back look like star constellations,,” Katherine defended her choice, indignant. She leaned over to try and take Nebula out of Anne’s hands, but Anne rolled just out of reach. 

“Constellations don’t make up a nebula, you nerd,” Anne laughed before letting out a yelp as the kitten hooked a claw in her septum piercing. She let the cat drop to the bed, shielding her face from continuing, relentless attacks until she could sit upright again. 

Nebula leapt over her, running to Katherine and climbing up her shirt to play with one of her dangling star earrings. “See! She approves. Don’t you sweetheart?” She giggled holding Nebula up to her shoulder to reach the earring without having to shred the material of her shirt just to keep balanced. 

“What about the ‘K’ behind her ear? Like, I still don’t see it but you did. Shouldn’t her name start with a ‘K’?” Anne’s eyes were watering from the tug on her nose ring. She dabbed at it with a gentle fingertip to check for bleeding, finding none.

A soft knock at the door made all three inhabitants of the room jump.

“It’s just me,” Parr called. She waited until she received consent this time before carefully slipping inside and closing the door quietly behind her. Her face lit up as she scooped the kitten into her arms. “Hello, my darling!” She murmured into her soft fur. Her tone was higher-pitched than either Katherine or Anne had ever heard from Parr before. The girls exchanged bemused glances behind Parr’s back at how easily she had been won over by the kitten’s charms.

“Does she have a name yet?” 

“Knightly. Like Kiera but less swashbuckly,” Anne interjected.

Katherine rolled her eyes ostentatiously. “It’s Nebula.”

“Oh, Nebula,” Parr tested it out, dropping kisses between her ears as she scratched under her chin, repeating the name a few more times. “I think it suits her,” she beamed as the cat twisted around so that she could nip at her fingers. “Have you given any more thought to how you are going to break the news to Jane?”

Katherine shifted uncomfortably before getting off the edge of her bed to tidy up the toys scattered across her floor. She gave Parr a weak shake of her head, acknowledging the fact that she had no idea how she was going to go about confessing her discretions. 

Anne flopped indelicately back onto the mattress, pulling the pillow to cover her mouth as she groaned and then tossing the pillow at Katherine’s vulnerable form as she was bent over to pick up a plush mouse. 

The pillow missed its mark, rather than harmlessly bouncing off of Katherine, it ricocheted off of a floor lamp. All three women froze as the lamp tilted perilously towards one side before Katherine came to her senses. She lunged forward to right it, tripping on her desk chair sending it clattering to one side, and crashing into the desk with her hip. Her hands caught the pole just as it was nearing the floor. 

Before she could set the lamp back on its base, her door flew open. “God, Kat, are you alright? I thought you were going to come through the wall,” Cleves walked into the room and helped Katherine set her chair back on its legs and had a look around the room. 

Nebula, terrified by the noise, took advantage of the opportunity for freedom and tore out into the hallway, running as far from the commotion as she could. Anne took up the chase, clumsily crashing into the wall across from Katherine’s door before taking off down the hallway to retrieve the kitten. 

“What the hell was that?” Cleves shouted, catching only a blur of motion before Anne bumbled out of the room. She turned to Katherine for answers when Parr ignored her question and followed Anne through the door.

Katherine refused to meet her eyes, biting her lip as she went around her room picking up odds and ends and shoving them into drawers and under the bed. 

“That,” Anne announced loudly as she stepped back into the room, “Was Kneecaps.” 

“Nebula.”

“Whatever.” Anne held the squirming kitten up for Cleves to see. “She’s the love of Katherine’s life and her dirty little secret, and if you squeal I will personally end you.” She stared Cleves down, almost daring her to try her. 

Cleves reached a tentative hand out to scratch the nervous kitten’s head. “Nebula, huh?” She turned to smile at Katherine. A small reassurance that she would not be the one responsible for divulging the information to anyone else in the house. “Just make sure I’m not home when Jane finds out, yeah?”


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Something is not right with Catherine

“Bless you,” Anne called out again. Catherine of Aragon had lost count of how many times she had been blessed by Anne so long ago. Her eyes ached, red and swollen, rubbed raw from days of relentless itching. Catherine turned her face into the couch cushion, clutching the box of tissues tightly to her chest, groaning, wallowing in her misery. This cold just would not quit. A whimper escaped as the burning sensation built in her nose feeling another sneeze coming on. She held a tissue to her chafed nose, wincing as it made contact against the sensitive skin. The sneeze rattled her ribcage, and scraped against her ravaged throat. 

“Bless you,” Anne’s voice rang out yet again, just as cheerful as the first time she had said those words days earlier. It somehow made the situation worse.

A wheeze laced coughing fit overtook her, and she turned her head back into the couch, pleading with every higher power she had ever heard of to end her suffering. 

“Alright, love?” Jane asked, perching herself on the edge of the couch next to Catherine. She set a cup of tea down for her on the end table, giving Catherine’s arm a reassuring squeeze. 

“No,” she said petulantly. Her voice was muffled by her position and weak from the abuse her body was enduring. “I’m dying.”

Jane tightened her grip on Catherine’s arm. “Don’t joke like that. You know I don’t like it,” she admonished. 

Catherine could only grunt in response, feeling sleep overtaking her. 

***

When she woke hours later, she was laying on her back with her arms thrown over her head, hanging painfully over the arm of the couch having pinched off the blood supply for too long. She wasn’t sure if it was the discomfort in her arms or if it was her own snoring that had roused her. 

As she waited for the feeling to return in her extremities after a laborious trial of repositioning them, the sound of her own mouth-breathing, coarse and rasping, filled the room. Her pulse in her ears kept time with her breaths, resounding in her head, echoing off the walls. Irregular and scratching.

She struggled to prop herself up on her elbows. 

She really was dying. She’d been here before. Her heart pounded in an unsteady rhythm, sporadically beating in conjunction with the fitful clamor of her lungs drowning in their attempts to expand. 

Of course it would happen now, while she was alone. 

Catherine was torn between conserving her energy or calling out for anyone in the house to come to her, to give her one last moment of comfort before she closed her eyes for the last time. She lowered herself down once again and brought her hands to her chest, resting them against her sternum in her final prayers.

The Lord’s Prayer brought her peace, each line bringing her more tranquility. Unsure of the effectiveness of the Prayer of Commendation when said for one’s self, she said it twice to be careful. She reached the last verse of her second recitation. “May you rest in peace and rise in the glory of your eternal home,” she took in a deep breath. “Forever in the paradise of God,” she exhaled, slow and steady. “Where grief and misery are banished,  
and light and joy abide. Amen.” 

With her next deep breath she readied herself to begin her next prayer. But something didn’t match up.

Her hands were pressed against her chest. And beneath them was the firm, unfaltering rhythm of her heart.

But faint thudding still resonated in her ears. 

She listened further. The scritching sound wasn’t her poor lungs either. It sounded as if mice were scurrying just overhead. Miracle or conspiracy, her newfound lease on life gave her the vitality to lift herself from the couch and investigate. She followed the sounds to the hallway upstairs.

The soft thumps and scuttering led her to Katherine’s door. 

“What are you doing?” Anne asked. She had materialized in a spot Catherine was certain had been empty a moment before. It seemed to add credibility and validity to the claim that Anne practiced witchcraft. 

“Does Katherine keep food in her room?”

Anne’s brow furrowed. She tentatively stepped toward Catherine with her arm stretched out in front of her. As her hand came closer to Catherine’s face, Catherine batted it away.

“I’m concerned about your well-being,” Anne said as she reached her hand toward Catherine’s forehead again. 

“Stop. Listen,” Catherine evaded Anne’s hand again and directed her attention toward Katherine’s closed door. “I think there are mice in her room.”

Anne blanched. “I don’t hear anything,” she exclaimed loudly. Her words tumbled out of her mouth before she had taken any time to listen.

Catherine narrowed her eyes at her, knowing precisely what the tone Anne had used meant. She was lying. She sized up her opponent and found her wanting. She knew her ability level even impacted by her illness. Without wasting another second, she leapt to Katherine’s door and whipped it open.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Who needs consistency?

**Author's Note:**

> Now taking name suggestions for part 2. 
> 
> Also, I couldn't decide if this fit into the Bad Ideas series. I might see where we land after chapter 2.


End file.
